The three officers testified. Thao testified that his role was not to monitor Floyd's condition, but to protect the officers from the bystanders.
Thao, Chauvin's partner that day and the second-most-senior officer at the scene, said he believed Floyd was fine because the officers were not giving him cardiopulmonary help.
Both Kueng and Lane testified that they were rookies at the time and deferred to Chauvin, who was an 18-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department.
Kueng told the court that Chauvin was his field training officer.
He was Kueng's senior officer and he trusted his advice.
He believed that Chauvin was acting according to the policy of the department when he choked Floyd with his knee.
Lane, who was a full-time officer with the department at the time of Floyd's arrest, said he tried to move Floyd from his facedown position twice, but Chauvin refused. He testified that he could see Floyd was breathing and that he was still alive.
According to prosecutors, the men were trained to stop other officers from using excessive force and to offer medical care to someone in custody if they showed signs of distress.
The group of onlookers who begged the officers to stop restraining Chauvin had no special training, but they were aware that the officers were killing him.
The guilty verdict should serve as a guiding example for police departments across the country, according to a statement by civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
Nothing will bring George Floyd back to his loved ones, but with these verdicts, we hope that the ignorant and indifference toward human life shown by these officers will be erased from our nation's police departments, so no other family has to experience a loss like this.
After the verdict was handed down, Thao, Kueng, and Lane were released on bail because they face another state trial later this year. The three men will be tried on state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
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